Dear Editor:

I am a veteran. Until about 10 years ago, this fact was incidental to my life; a source of stories to tell over cocktails. About 10 years ago, people began to thank me for my service. This was very flattering as I did not consider what I did to be a matter of public adulation.

Like most veterans, my tour of duty was filled with tedious hours of watch-standing and the routines and rigor of military life. Like all veterans, there was measured risk and managed danger. I served on a submarine shadowing Soviet submarines under the North Atlantic. It was a bland adventure.

Recently, in conversation with a new acquaintance, I asked if he was a veteran. He paused slightly as he looked down and answered that he was not. In that moment I realized that we have become a society separated by military service. Our volunteer military stands exalted from the mainstream public.

This public ritual fawning over veterans and the separation of military service from mainstream society is something that we as a free nation ought to be wary of. “We go to war, they go to the mall” is an adage veterans are now all too familiar with. War is someone else’s job and we are insulated from it.

Certainly we should honor our veterans and generously support them as they return home from duty, but let us not forget the really important people here at home and their contribution to making our lives livable. I am talking about teachers, police, road crews, nurses and store clerks.

So, the next time you stop at that late night convenience store to pick up a quart of milk, take notice of that clerk. She is probably a single mom, working several different part-time jobs at minimum wage. She is probably in that store alone and exposed to the danger of robbery or drunk and abusive customers. She is a bedrock American. Thank her for her service.

Fred W. Nehring

Boothbay